Broadway’s Annie Revival Finds a Home; The Palace

It looks as though Broadway’s newest orphan has found her home! As the Fall 2012 theatre season begins to loom in among all other news as we wrap up the Spring 2012 season, it looks as though Broadway’s Annie has found its home in some of the brightest lights on Broadway. In a much expected announcement, producers of the revival today announced that Annie would find her new home in Broadways legendary Palace Theatre located in the heart of the theatre district in Times Square.

Annie is a musical that features music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin and a book by Thomas Meehan. The musical is based after the hit comic strip, Little Orphan Annie, and opened on Broadway in 1977 to rave reviews. The musical follows one little girl (Annie) who lives in an orphanage as she works to find out who her real parents are. She does this with the help of a man who adopts her, Oliver ‘Daddy’ Warbucks, and his assistant Grace Farrell. Together, they work through triumph and tragedy to find out the truth behind Annie’s parents and discover love along the way. The revival of Annie will receive a revised book by original writer Thomas Meehan.

The Palace in 2009 – Home to West Side Story

Producers announced today that Annie would finds its new home at The Palace Theatre located in Times Square come Fall 2012. Previews will begin October 3rd with an official opening now set for November 8th, 2012. Many were not surprised by this news as it was previously announced Annie would find a home in a Nederlander theatre on Broadway. All Nederlander theatre’s currently are housing pretty legit productions and the only one many were questioning was Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. Upon its closing notice last week, many assumed Annie would find its new home in Times Square.

The Palace in Times Square – 1920

The move to place Annie in Times Square is also a fantastic marketing strategy by the Nederlander Organization and the producers of this new revival. With many questioning why Annie was being revived in the first place, the new home of The Palace will help bring Annie to life in a bigger sense that ever before as it makes its return to Broadway under the direction of James Lapine. Also, Annie in the heart of New York City will be quite literally sitting right in front of hundreds of thousands of tourists come the New York holiday season and play a huge attraction to the younger kids and families that consistently find themselves in Times Square. If you are going to bring back Annie, you need to do it the right way. And this is one the first steps to doing so.

Other creative team members for Annie include Andy Blankenbuehler as choreographer, a scenic design by David Korins, a costume design by Susan Hilferty, a lighting design by Donald Holder and a sound design by Brian Ronan. Music director is Todd Ellison. Hair and wig design is by Tom Watson. Animal training is by Tony Award winner William Berloni, who also worked on the original production training the original dog “Sandy”.

The original Broadway production opened on April 21st, 1977 and went on to run for six years at the Neil Simon Theatre (Known then as the Alvin Theatre). It received 7 Tony Awards including the triple crown, Best Original Score, Best Book and Best Musical.

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